EU officials say that work on such an agreement is at an advanced stage, with the Beijing authorities agreeing to the principle that holiday-makers who try to remain in Europe can be returned under a fast-track procedure.

But pro-refugee campaigners warn that the deal could lead to situations where those coming to Europe ostensibly as tourists are denied the right to lodge asylum applications, even if they are genuinely fleeing persecution. According to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, China is the third main country of origin – behind Russia, and the Serbia and Montenegro federation – for asylum claims made in 36 industrialized countries.

“The priority is wrong,” said Richard Williams of the European Council on Refugees and Exile. “The EU is getting many asylum-seekers from China. But rather than thinking what we should do to protect them or to get China to stop human rights abuses, it is thinking how do we get China to take them back.”

Some 30 issues are up for discussion at The Hague gathering, such as agreements on customs, financial assistance for social security systems and Chinese participation in the Erasmus student exchange programme. But the most sensitive topics on the summit’s agenda are the arms embargo imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and Beijing’s request to be recognized as a functioning market economy.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is unlikely to receive what he deems to be a satisfactory response on these two topics. On the arms ban, a Chinese diplomat said that it was a relic of the Cold War. “Sixteen years have passed and human rights have improved dramatically,” he said.

EU member states are split on the embargo. While France is leading calls for it to be scrapped, Britain and some of the Nordic countries favour its retention.

Lotte Leicht of Human Rights Watch said that it would be wrong to end the embargo, while the Tiananmen Mothers – who represent relatives of demonstrators killed during demonstrations – continue to be harassed.